The USDA’s controversial New Poultry Inspection System is the subject of a lawsuit filed by advocacy group Food & Water Watch.

The group wants to stop implementation of the poultry inspection rule, which was announced by the agency on July 31st because it’s essentially privatizing poultry inspection. It requires the addition of microbiological testing in all poultry processing facilities, but it gives the poultry companies the power to sort their own products for quality before undergoing inspection from FSIS (Food Safety Inspection Services).

“According to USDA, the goal of NPIS is to free up inspectors from each line to be able to ensure that sampling and testing are done properly and sanitation requirements are met, and to verify compliance with food safety rules,” reports Food Safety News.

But that’s simply not the case, argues Food & Water Watch. The system “flies in the face of the agency’s mandate to protect consumers,” says Wenonah Hauter, FWW executive director, and the the complaint states that the rule will deny consumers “the right to know which products that have an official inspection legend and establishment number are actually federally inspected.”

Increasing line speeds to 140 chickens per minute under the new rule is a major concern of Food & Water Watch as well. Speeds will increase from the Streamlined Inspection System of 35 carcasses per minute and the New Line Speed Inspection System of 30 per minute. And the group says that the NPIS rule is actually in violation of the Poultry Products Inspection Act, which requires federal government inspectors to reject contaminated chicken and turkey carcasses, not slaughterhouse employees, which the new rule will allow.

“USDA’s new system will harm consumers and reverse 100 years of effective government regulation of the meat industry,” Hauter said. “It’s essentially a return to Upton Sinclair’s ‘The Jungle.’ It’s a huge step backwards for our food safety system.”

]]>USDA Says Faster Poultry Inspections are Saferhttp://www.organicauthority.com/blog/organic/usda-says-faster-poultry-inspections-are-safer/
Wed, 08 Aug 2012 16:32:44 +0000http://www.organicauthority.com/blog/?p=11158A controversial proposal that would increase the number of birds processed at chicken plants from 140 to 175 birds per minute, received support from a USDA spokesperson in a recent statement, despite the agency’s failure to meet targeted goals for reducing the outbreak of food borne illnesses. The new safety inspection procedure aims to save […]

A controversial proposal that would increase the number of birds processed at chicken plants from 140 to 175 birds per minute, received support from a USDA spokesperson in a recent statement, despite the agency’s failure to meet targeted goals for reducing the outbreak of food borne illnesses.

The new safety inspection procedure aims to save taxpayers $90 million by cutting the number of government poultry inspectors by 800, and speeding the poultry processing lines up by 25 percent. Citing that the increase in birds per inspector would “enhance” safety measures, Food and Safety Inspection Service spokesman Dirk Fillpot said that directing inspector efforts more towards the improvement of food safety would make the nation’s poultry supply less at risk for contamination. The agency reports that the increased birds per minute will be presorted for defects and diseases, decreasing what inspectors have to look for in identifying potential contaminants that contribute to food borne outbreaks like salmonella, listeria and E.coli. But inspectors won’t even be checking inside chicken chest cavities where contamination risks are common.

The USDA says the new line increases will help to reduce food borne outbreaks. But speeding up processing lines comes with risks not being considered by the USDA, reports the Huffington Post. Processing plant workers reportedly quit because fast running lines operating at less than the proposed increase, were already too fast and dangerous for workers to keep up with. And recent reports released by government agencies suggest that the nation is failing to meet target goals for reducing food borne illness outbreaks—cases of salmonella are still more than double targets set by the Centers for Disease Control.

]]>Poultry Industry Self-Inspection Will Lead to More Chemicals and Antibioticshttp://www.organicauthority.com/blog/organic/poultry-industry-trying-to-take-inspection-into-their-own-hands/
Sat, 26 May 2012 07:00:31 +0000http://www.organicauthority.com/blog/?p=11003A proposed rule that would give the poultry industry the authority to inspect its own birds at record speed for safety and health issues during slaughter is receiving major backlash from industry watchdog group, the Center for Food Safety. Currently, each USDA safety inspector assigned to slaughter lines has to evaluate as many as 35 birds […]

A proposed rule that would give the poultry industry the authority to inspect its own birds at record speed for safety and health issues during slaughter is receiving major backlash from industry watchdog group, the Center for Food Safety.

Currently, each USDA safety inspector assigned to slaughter lines has to evaluate as many as 35 birds per minute, but under the new rule, that number would go up five times to 175 birds per minute, which, says the Center for Food Safety, are “alarmingly high rates” that could make inspectors less effective at maintaining quality standards.

The Center for Food Safety also says that the industry-regulated proposed rule could lead to the removal of human inspectors on the line altogether, resulting in the use of more chemicals and antibiotics in order to prevent the spread of disease and infection.

In a statement release by the Center for Food Safety, the organization says, “The agency [USDA] readily admits that the poultry industry will stand to earn an additional $260 million per year by removing the cap on line speeds, and the rule does not require that company employees receive any training or prove proficiency in performing duties normally performed by government inspectors who are required to take training before they are assigned to the slaughter line. By unleashing higher line speeds, this proposed rule furthers the industrialization of the food supply—and the profits of large producers—at the expense of increased risk to human health, animal welfare, and worker safety.”

The organization is calling on consumers to petition the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service and tell them to reject the rule by May 29th.